Photo Collages From 2017

I started this around New Years last year, and managed to do it again this year. This is a set of collages from my travels in 2017. I did a collage for each country I spent time in, plus an additional collage of just wildlife photos.

I technically started 2017 in Cambodia, but I was on a bus heading for the Vietnam border on New Year's Day. We only had two weeks between our Christmas break and Tet break, and during that Tet break, I went to Bangkok, Thailand for a job fair. We managed to fit in some sightseeing around the business portion of the trip.

Here are some of my best photos from Thailand:

And a sampling of Thailand's wildlife:

I didn't end up landing a job for 2017-2018 at the Bangkok job fair, but I did get hired pretty soon after, from there it was a race to finish things up in Vietnam and get ready to head to China in July!

Part of that finishing things up involved finally getting a chance to see a bit or northern Vietnam. On our spring break, we took a trip to Hanoi, Halong Bay, and Sapa, and that trip supplied most of the photos for this Vietnam collage:

 

And here are some of the wildlife photos I took in 2017 in Vietnam.

In June we flew home to New England, USA for our annual summer visit. It was frenetically paced and full of lots of visits with friends and family, plus a bit of sightseeing that included Annapolis MD, New York City, Philadelphia, Hampton Beach NH, and Cape Cod MA.



I managed to get some wildlife photos during our travels around the northeastern USA.



And then on to our next big adventure: China!



Aside from one business trip that I took to Shenzhen, we've stayed in Shanghai, but there is plenty to see here, including some opportunities for a bit of wildlife photography even in this massive city.



Last up: These are my picks for my best nine photos of 2017. Enjoy!



You can see more of my photos of travel, nature, and geekery on Flickr and on Instagram.

Happy New Year!

Welcome 2017!

We spent New Year's Eve in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and got a nice view of the Phnom Penh fireworks from the rooftop garden of the hotel we were staying in.

2017 begins with uncertainty. I didn't sign a contract with my current day job, so we're moving on at the end of the school year. I was hoping to have some definite news on the job front by now, but I've had two verbal offers that fell through for various reasons, so off I go to the job fair in Bangkok, Thailand this week. We'll see if I have something by the end of the weekend. Either way, I'm looking forward to my first time in Thailand.

Looking Back At 2016

Traveling: We traveled to Phu Quoc Island and Vung Tau (twice!) in Vietnam. I also had two trips to Cambodia: One work trip to Phnom Penh, and the vacation trip to Phnom Penh and Kep that we just got back from. We went to Singapore in the Fall, the one new country we added to our list in 2016. We had our trip home to the US in the Summer, including the annual father/son road trip, which took myself and the Kiddo to Ithaca NY. Other places we visited in the US included Newark NJ, New York City, Rhode Island, New Hampshire (including a family event on Hampton Beach). I went back to the US for a few days in November for less happy reasons when my Grandmother passed away.

Writing: This was a slow year, writing-wise, but I did achieve my goals of 1) writing 50,000 words as part of Nanowrimo, and 2) writing a complete story for Nanowrimo.

Reviews: I've kept up pretty well with reviews in 2016, reviewing over 50 books on goodreads, as well as posting my ongoing comic reviews on my comic blog, dailycomicreview.blogspot.com.

Reading: It's been a good year for reading. For the second year in a row, I beat my 50-book goal on Goodreads. My last book read in 2016 was Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which seemed an appropriate end to the year's reading. My complete recap of the year's reading on Goodreads is here. My five favorite books read in 2016 (not in a specific order) were:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Short Ride in the Jungle by Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas R. Hofstadter
Finding George Orwell In Burma by Emma Larkin
Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Movies: I'm not as much of a movie buff as they typical nerd, so I only tend to see a few per year. The 2016 releases that I got to see were (with my one-word assessment):

The Jungle Book (Good)
Captain America: Civil War (Excellent)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Meh)
Ghostbusters (Good)
Independence Day: Resurgence (Awful)
Star Trek Beyond (Good)
Doctor Strange (Good)
Moana (Excellent)
Arrival (Excellent)
Rogue One (Excellent) 

2016 In Pictures

Here are some collages I put together of pictures I took in 2016. First of all, a set of highlights of the four countries that we spent time in during 2016.

Vietnam

 USA

Singapore

 

 Cambodia

And I also put together a set of wildlife collages by country.

Vietnam Wildlife

 

 USA Wildlife

 Singapore Wildlife

 Cambodia Wildlife

Here's the Kiddo's suitcase at the end of 2016. More flags hopefully coming soon!

And finally, here's a collage of my favorite 9 pictures that I took in 2016.

 

Looking Ahead: Resolutions for 2017

Secure employment! Outside of the US if possible. I'd love for our overseas adventures to continue.

Edit! Edit the Nano novel. Edit the previous novel I was working on.

Play more boardgames. I fell out of the habit of this in the second half of 2016. Need to do more tabletop gaming.

Read 55 books. Having made the goal of 50 for two years in a row, I'm upping the challenge slightly. My 2017 Goodreads challenge is here.

Keep up with this blog and try to expand it and add more content. Keep up with my other social media.

Lastly, I've decided to make a serious attempt at a weekly donation, each week to a different cause I support. 

Hope everyone reading this has a safe and happy 2017! Chuc mung nam moi 2017!